Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links. If you click a link and purchase an item I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions are my opinion. Read the full disclosure here.
My No Spend/Low Spend year is officially over and I want to share my experience!
I must say, 2020 was probably the best year to do this.
Obviously, I didn’t go into the New Year expecting a worldwide pandemic and most travel/events to be canceled, but that’s what happened.
If you go back to my original No Spend plan, you’ll see that I didn’t want to spend money on:
- Clothes
- Shoes
- Home decor
- Supplements (BCAAs, protein powder, etc.)
- Books
- Notebooks, pens, etc.
- Electronics (camera, tripod, computer, etc.)
- Courses
- Unnecessary beauty products (face masks, scrubs, etc.)
Well, from this list I did break my no spend rules a few times.
Supplements: I did buy BCAAs once. I also decided I DID want to buy protein to supplement my vegan diet.
Books: I did buy one book, but with an Amazon gift card I received on my birthday!
Notebooks/pens: I bought 2 bullet journals. One I did plan for, but the other was a “trial” bullet journal.
Courses: I bought 2 courses for about $19. However, I do consider them as an investment in my business.
Beauty products: I probably spent about $30 on unnecessary beauty products.
ALL of My Spending
There are quite a few things I must pay for (rent, utilities, bills, debt, etc.) and I am going to go through how much I spent in each area
Savings/Sinking Funds – I did put money into my various sinking funds, but I don’t consider that as spending.
Roth IRA – I invested a total of $1,400 into my Roth IRA (VTSAX with Vanguard).
Donate – I donated $650.50. I donated at least $50 a month, and usually always to animal rescues.
Rent – $16,016 for my one bedroom, one bathroom apartment in Atlanta, GA. My lease went up by $30 in May. I predicted that I would pay about $18K for living expenses total. With the numbers below, you’ll see that was pretty accurate.
Renter’s Insurance – $186.16
Trash – $420, I have to pay for valet trash service at my apartment.
Wi-Fi – $655 for Google Fiber
Electricity – $725.45 which was a little higher than last year. This is because I was home WAY more.
Water/Sewage – $450.57 again higher than last year due to being home more.
Food/Groceries – $3,835.68 on groceries (including toiletries) and food out. I planned for about $3,000, but I did increase my grocery budget around October or so.
Gas (car) – $254.13 which is more than half of what I spent last year. Since I’ve been working from home I drove significantly less and gas prices were much lower anyway.
Student Loans – $556.86 because I paid the first 3 months before the pandemic/CARES act.
Car loan – $9,951.38, my car payment is $382.55 but since student loans were in forbearance I decided to tackle my car loan first. I can’t believe how much I paid off of it!
Car maintenance – $64.66 All I got was an oil change, tire rotation, and inspection since I barely drove! I pulled the money from my sinking fund though.
Credit card debt – $6,585.38 If you don’t know, I started 2020 with credit card debt all from a balance transfer of my student loans. I was actually very stressed about not being able to pay it off in time, but it all worked out!
Insurance – $1,708.65 which includes life, dental, and vision insurance. However, in December I canceled my vision and dental plans since it is now offered through my job.
Health – $1,584.21 which includes vitamins, supplements, and medical expenses. I also didn’t get ANY massages even though I planned for 2!
Phone/Car Insurance/Dogs – $2,930.25 This is a bit confusing so let me explain. My sister’s name is on our phone bill (myself, my sister, my dad, and step mom) so I pay her for my portion AND for my dad/step mom’s. This is because my dad pays my car insurance and the costs are about the same. Me and my sister also adopted 3 dogs together but now that we live apart she has all 3 with her so I send $50 a month to help out.
Business – I invested $1,976.52 into my online businesses which includes website hosting, email services, my course platform, merch, and a number of other things. I was expecting to only pay $1200, but obviously predicted too low.
Spotify – $119.88
Gifts – $924.37 all of which I had saved in my sinking funds.
Co-signed car – $2,947.66 If you don’t know my story you can watch this video. Early 2020 I ended up having to pay the difference in what CarMax offered for the car and what was left on the loan, even though I never drove the car. It sucks, but this was also a HUGE relief to get out of.
Grow You (coaching) – $196 and I canceled early. I was expecting to spend $343 on this but she ended up raising the price so I canceled.
Parking – $40 Several places in Atlanta require you to pay for parking and usually my boyfriend would pay for the event/restaurant we were going to so I would cover parking.
Beauty – $190.85 The bulk of this was necessary (shampoo, moisturizer, etc.) and I would say ~$30 was not necessary.
Travel – $634.92 I was supposed to go to Chicago for an event in May but that got canceled. However, in October my boyfriend and I ended up booking a weekend trip to Colorado!
CPA – $265 To my CPA for filing my taxes.
Miscellaneous – And the most important number of all…$123.29. That is IT. I only spent $123 on unnecessary items!!!!! INSANE.
This is what I bought: a bullet journal, glue (my table broke), hair oil, bodyweight scale, straw cleaner, stamps, stun gun, pepper spray, FitBit bands.
What I Experienced
I appreciated my things more
Along this journey I really realized I had more than enough and I felt a greater appreciation for those things.
I also made sure to take care of my things more so that I wouldn’t have to spend money to replace them.
I wanted less
Throughout the year I really noticed the trap that people fall into. When going out or even on social media I would see people with tons of shopping bags and expensive outfits. It definitely made me curious about their finances
I didn’t feel the desire to want as many things because I don’t care to impress strangers/people around me.
Of course, there are things I wanted and still want, but I would see something and not buy it. Which would make me proud and I ended up being glad I didn’t purchase it.
I was able to pay off debt AND save more
I paid off about the same amount of debt as I did in 2019. However, this year I was able to save WAY more.
I put $200 – $500 in my sinking funds each month and got my emergency fund to almost $4,000.
I obviously wouldn’t have been able to do that if I was spending.
In 2020 I also didn’t have a significant increase in income. I got my usual 3% raise at work and actually made less money online.
Going Forward
I will not be continuing a no spend year for 2021.
There are things that I would like to purchase and a few things have become a necessity. For example, I walked so much in 2020 that my shoes are getting holes in them!
Now I don’t plan on blowing my money on personal spending, but I will definitely be purchasing “unnecessary” items.
Since November, I have been adding $50 to a personal spending sinking fund and I will be budgeting a certain amount each month.
At the very least, I will always make sure I have the money to pay for it in full. I definitely won’t be going into credit card debt again.
I need to declutter again
I would like to declutter my apartment again (primarily my closet) and go through the things I don’t use and either sell or donate them.
Sustainable/ethical shopping
I really want to shop more sustainably. For me the first place to look are thrift stores for used items.
There is just so much stuff in the world and I want to try and decrease my addition to that.
Plus, I don’t want to support companies that are unethical.
Overall, I am SO glad I committed this challenge and highly encourage others to try it out!!
Please let me know if you have any questions!
